When a commercial small engine builder came to CGR with a costly gasket part and backlogged assembly line, we sought to find a solution that would improve production efficiency for the OEM.
The commercial small engine builder was receiving die-cut rubber coated metal-clad parts in bulk boxes from their supplier. The bulk delivery resulted in reduced efficiency on the assembly line, due to the fact that the parts needed to be stacked in 50 piece piles before they could be installed.
The parts also needed to be assembled with four additional gaskets in order to complete the assembly because they were too thin for the application.
At production volumes of 1,500,000 per year, any delays, however small, will compound into serious inefficiencies. Our customer needed to find a solution from a new supplier to break the bottleneck in the assembly line. The solution required the efficient transport and packaging of thicker metal-clad parts in stacks of 50.
The Solution
CGR supplied our customer with the required parts in 50 piece increments so that their associates were able to easily prepare the parts for assembly. Moreover, CGR worked with the customer’s R&D group to find a supplier that could provide a thicker rubber coated metal-clad material.
CGR successfully identified a suitable supplier and made the recommendation. The R&D team evaluated the supplier over many months of trial orders to ensure that the parts were perfect. CGR also sourced precision tolerance male and female tooling for the production of the parts. Once the parts were cleared by the customer and the trial period came to a close, CGR commenced the mass production of the parts.
The Result
CGR packaged parts in stacks of 50 resulting in vastly improved assembly times for the customer. Furthermore, they achieved direct cost savings of $400,000 per year by using the thicker rubber coated metal-clad material, thereby eliminating the four additional gaskets from the assembly process.
Partnering with CGR
Our staff are experts at finding creative solutions to manufacturing problems. At CGR, custom solutions are truly our specialty.
Do you have a problem that requires an innovative solution? Contact us today to discuss how we can help.
